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Daily links: Wed., Nov. 23: Where love and charity prevail

Yesterday Elizabeth Scalia, aka The Anchoress, blogging at First Things muses over Christians who “shush” and tell others to “be nice.” They’re tyrannical, apparently, those who expect charity from their faithful. I’d likely be one of those adhering to the “trend” that she’s noticed recently, having done my own bit of shushing (and comment moderating) when people can’t play nice. However, it’s not because I don’t recognize that sometimes the truth hurts or that avoiding conflict is totally unhealthy. I think this “trend” has more to do with more and more Catholics (notice I’m not doubting their faith) making claims like her fellow First Things blogger, calling people out of communion, heretics, or anyone they deem unorthodox as a “liberal,” to which I (and others) say, Stop being so mean. Stop being a bully. Stop being uncharitable and try for a second to give someone you disagree with the benefit of the doubt. (You surely don’t need links to find examples.) Forgive me for being so sanctimonious.

Newt Gingrich, one of our two fellow Catholics running in the Republican presidential primaries, said earlier this week that poor kids should do the janitorial work in their schools (and what of the rich kids?). This would help us get rid of janitors’ unions and schools having to pay janitors—kids are much cheaper labor, after all. But then he goes and gets all, well, Catholic, in the foreign policy debate last night and, going against the usual party line, says he thinks we need a more humane approach to immigration. From the Guardian: He argued the children of illegal immigrants should not be ripped away from their families. He said that he did not believe Americans wanted to take people who have lived in the country for 25 years and expel them over a crime committed long ago. He was criticized by his opponents, including the other Catholic, Rick Santorum.

This column from the Philadelphia Inquirer says what I've been thinking all along regarding this whole idea that Christians are being denied religious liberty in this country: "If anyone is trying to oppress Christians, he or she is doing a pretty lousy job of it."

Now that that's off my chest, it's time for some housekeeping before the long holiday weekend:

Yesterday in our weekly ebulletin, we asked subscribers to share with us their weird, wacky, and wonderful Thanksgiving traditions in 200 words and then email them in. Then, after the news letter went out, we discovered the inbox we asked them to send the submissions was broken. Our apologies if you’ve tried sending them in. We’re working on getting it fixed, but in the mean time, you can share your traditions (or strangest recipes—Aunt Edna’s Cheese Wiz Wheel, anyone?) in the comment section of this blog post.

The US Catholic offices are closed until Monday, so no daily links tomorrow and Friday. Happy Thanksgiving!